Who is PETA President Ingrid Newkirk? Why did she take public shower in Mumbai?

To bring attention to environmental damage wrought by the meat industry, including wasting water in India, PETA President Ingrid Newkirk, on Thursday, took a shower on a Mumbai road to send the message that the best thing people can do to save water and stop contributing to the global climate catastrophe is to go vegan.

While taking a shower, the PETA President protected herself with a shower curtain that read, "1 Chicken Meal = 30 Showers. Go Vegan to End World Drought!" 

Who is PETA President Ingrid Newkirk?

Ingrid Newkirk was born in Surrey, England, and lived in Europe until she was 7 years old after which she moved to New Delhi, where her father worked as a navigational engineer and her mother volunteered for Mother Teresa and several other charities.

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It was when Ingrid was 21 years old that she gave thought to animal rights and developed an interest in it. Ingrid and her husband were living in Maryland at the time. Ingrid was studying to become a stockbroker when she encountered some kittens, abandoned by a neighbour. Taking care of those kittens and dropping them to an animal shelter is what led to a life-changing experience for Ingrid. She got her first job cleaning kennels and investigating cruelty cases. Her encounters and experiences with that job led her to realise the importance of an organisation like PETA. 

Ingrid also has served as a deputy sheriff where she became a Maryland state law enforcement officer with the highest success rate in convicting animal abusers. She also became the director of cruelty investigations for the second-oldest humane society in the US and the chief of animal disease control for the Commission on Public Health in Washington, DC. 

Under Ingrid’s leadership, legislation was passed to create the first-ever spay-and-neuter clinic in Washington, DC. 

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Ingrid is an 'abolitionist who remains committed to the idea that animals are not ours to eat, wear, experiment on or use for entertainment', according to her website. 

As for her latest display in Mumbai, Ingrid said, "Modern meat and dairy production requires up to 50 times more water than the production of plant foods, like legumes, vegetables, and grains. PETA is urging everyone to save animals’ lives and precious resources by choosing vegan foods—before life and ecology as we know it go down the drain."

PETA - whose motto reads, in part that, “animals are not ours to eat”—opposes speciesism, a human-supremacist worldview.